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George Santayana
|birth_place = Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain |nationality = Spaniard-American |death_date = September |death_place = Rome, Lazio, Italy |alma_mater = Harvard University King's College, Cambridge |school_tradition = Pragmatism, Naturalism |main interests = moral philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of religion |notable_ideas = Lucretian materialism, skepticism, natural aristocracy, The Realms of Being |influences = Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius, Baruch Spinoza, Arthur Schopenhauer, Hippolyte Taine, Ernest Renan, William James, Ralph Waldo Emerson |influenced = Naturalism, William James, Bertrand Russell, Wallace Stevens, John Lachs |signature = |signature_alt = }} Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás (December 16, 1863 - September 26, 1952), known in English as George Santayana, was a Spanish-born American poet, philosopher, essayist, and novelist. Life Overview A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States and identified himself as an American.George Santayana, "Apologia Pro Mente Sua," in P. A. Schilpp, The Philosophy of George Santayana, (1940), 603. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters. At the age of 48, Santayana left his position at Harvard and returned to Europe permanently, never to return to the United States. His last will was to be buried in the Spanish Pantheon of the Cimitero Monumentale del Verano in Rome. Santayana is known for his (often-misquoted ) comments: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it",George Santayana (1905) Reason in Common Sense, volume 1 of The Life of Reason and "Only the dead have seen the end of war."George Santayana (1922) Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, number 25 The latter sentence has often been falsely attributed to Plato; The former appears in his book, Reason in Common Sense, the initial volume of the 5-volume Life of Reason. (In the 1905 Scribner's edition, it is found on page 284.) The philosophical system of Santayana is broadly considered as pragmatist due to his concerns shared with fellow Harvard University associates William James and Josiah Royce. Santayana did not accept this label for his writing and eschewed any association with a philosophical school; he declared that he stood in philosophy "exactly where stood in daily life." Youth Santayana was born on December 16, 1863, in Madrid, Spain. He spent his early childhood in Ávila, Spain. His mother Josefina Borrás was the daughter of a Spanish official in the Philippines, and Jorge was the only child of her 2nd marriage. She was the widow of George Sturgis, a Boston merchant with whom she had 5 children, 2 of whom died in infancy. She lived in Boston for a few years following her husband's death in 1857, but in 1861 moved with her 3 surviving children to live in Madrid. There she encountered Agustín Ruiz de Santayana, an old friend from her years in the Philippines. They married in 1862. A colonial civil servant, Ruiz de Santayana was also a painter and minor intellectual. The family lived in Madrid and Ávila until 1869, when Josefina Borrás de Santayana returned to Boston with her 3 Sturgis children, as she had promised their father to raise the children in the US. She left 6-year-old Jorge with his father in Spain. Jorge and his father followed her in 1872, but his father, finding neither Boston nor his wife's attitude to his liking, soon returned alone to Ávila. He remained there the rest of his life. Jorge did not see him again until he had entered Harvard University and took his summer vacations in Spain. Sometime during this period, Jorge's 1st name was anglicized as George, the English equivalent. Education as a student at Harvard]] He attended Boston Latin School and Harvard University, where he studied under the philosophers William James and Josiah Royce. After graduating from Harvard, Phi Beta KappaWho Belongs To Phi Beta Kappa, ’Phi Beta Kappa website’’, accessed Oct 4, 2009 in 1886, Santayana studied for 2 years in Berlin. He returned to Harvard to write his dissertation on Hermann Lotze and teach philosophy, becoming part of the Golden Age of the Harvard philosophy department. Some of his Harvard students became famous in their own right, including T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Gertrude Stein, Walter Lippmann, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Harry Austryn Wolfson. Wallace Stevens was not among his students, but became a friend. From 1896 to 1897, Santayana studied at King's College, Cambridge. Later life In 1912, Santayana resigned his Harvard position to spend the rest of his life in Europe. He had saved money and been aided by a legacy from his mother. After some years in Ávila, Paris and Oxford, after 1920, he began to winter in Rome, eventually living there year-round until his death. During his 40 years in Europe, he wrote nineteen books and declined several prestigious academic positions. Many of his visitors and correspondents were Americans, including his assistant and eventual literary executor, Daniel Cory. In later life, Santayana was financially comfortable, in part because his 1935 novel, The Last Puritan, had become an unexpected best-seller. In turn, he financially assisted a number of writers, including Bertrand Russell, with whom he was in fundamental disagreement, philosophically and politically. Santayana never married. Writing Philosophy , Santayana was critical of it and made an effort to distance himself from its epistemology]] Santayana's main philosophical work consists of [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26842 The Sense of Beauty] (1896), his 1st book-length monograph and perhaps the earliest major work on aesthetics written in the United States; The Life of Reason 5 volumes, 1905-1906, the high point of his Harvard career; Scepticism and Animal Faith (1923); and The Realms of Being, 4 volumes, 1927-1940). Although Santayana was not a pragmatist in the mold of William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, Josiah Royce, or John Dewey, The Life of Reason arguably is the earliest extended treatment of pragmatism written. Like many of the classical pragmatists, and because he was also well-versed in evolutionary theory, Santayana was committed to metaphysical naturalism. He believed that human cognition, cultural practices, and social institutions have evolved so as to harmonize with the conditions present in their environment. Their value may then be adjudged by the extent to which they facilitate human happiness. The alternate title to The Life of Reason, "the Phases of Human Progress", is indicative of this metaphysical stance. Santayana was an early adherent of epiphenomenalism, but also admired the classical materialism of Democritus and Lucretius (of the 3 authors on whom he wrote in Three Philosophical Poets, Santayana speaks most favorably of Lucretius). He held Spinoza's writings in high regard, without subscribing to the latter's rationalism or pantheism. Although an agnostic, he held a fairly benign view of religion, in contrast to Bertrand Russell who held that religion was harmful. Santayana's views on religion are outlined in his books Reason in Religion, The Idea of Christ in the Gospels, and Interpretations of Poetry and Religion. Santayana described himself as an "aesthetic Catholic". He spent the last decade of his life at the Convent of the Blue Nuns of the Little Company of Mary on the Celian Hill at 6 Via Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome, where he was cared for by the Irish sisters. Other Santayana's only novel, The Last Puritan, is a bildungsroman, that is, a novel that centers on the personal growth of the protagonist. His Persons and Places is an autobiography. These works also contain many of his sharper opinions and bons mots. He wrote books and essays on a wide range of subjects, including philosophy of a less technical sort, literary criticism, the history of ideas, politics, human nature, morals, the subtle influence of religion on culture and social psychology, all with considerable wit and humor. While his writings on technical philosophy can be difficult, his other writings are far more accessible and have literary quality. All of his books contain quotable passages. He wrote poems and a few plays, and left an ample correspondence, much of it published only since 2000. In his temperament, judgments and prejudices, Santayana was very much the Castilian Platonist, cold, aristocratic and elitist, a curious blend of Mediterranean conservative (similar to Paul Valéry) and cultivated Anglo-Saxon, aloof and ironically detached. Russell Kirk discussed Santayana in his The Conservative Mind from Edmund Burke to T. S. Eliot. Like Alexis de Tocqueville, Santayana observed American culture and character from a foreigner's point of view. Like Ralph Waldo Emerson, he wrote philosophy in a literary way. Although he declined to become an American citizen and resided in fascist Italy for decades, Santayana is usually considered an American writer by Americans. But he said that he was most comfortable, intellectually and aesthetically, at Oxford University. His materialistic, skeptical philosophy was never in tune with the Spanish world of his time. In the post-Franco era, he is gradually being recognized and translated. Recognition Santayana is remembered in large part for his aphorisms, many of which have been so frequently used as to have become clichéd. His philosophy has not fared quite as well. Although he is regarded by most as an excellent prose stylist, Professor John Lachs (who is sympathetic with much of Santayana's philosophy) writes in his book On Santayana that the latter's eloquence may ultimately be the cause of this neglect. Santayana influenced those around him, including Bertrand Russell, who in his critical essay admits that Santayana single-handedly steered him away from the ethics of G.E. Moore. He also influenced many of his prominent students, perhaps most notably poet Wallace Stevens. Those who have studied the philosophies of naturalism or materialism in the 20th century come inevitably to Santayana, whose mark upon them has been great. Santayana is quoted by Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman as a central influence in the thesis of his famous 1959 book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Awards * Royal Society of Literature Benson Medal, 1928 * Columbia University Butler Gold Medal, 1945 * Honorary degree from the University of Wisconsin In popular culture Ezra Pound included Santayana among his many cultural references in The Cantos, notably in "Canto LXXXI" and "Canto XCV". Cartoonist Chuck Jones used Santayana's description of fanaticism as "redoubling your effort after you've forgotten your aim" to describe his cartoons starring Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner.See the sixth paragraph, That's Not All, Folks! "Of course you know this means war." Who said it?, by Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal, November 25, 2003, (Archived at WebCite). Publications Poetry *''Sonnets, and other verses. Cambridge, MA: Stone & Kimball, 1894. ** revised & enlarged edition, 1896. * ''A Hermit of Carmel, and other poems. New York: Scribner, 1901. * Poems: Selected by the author and revised. London: Constable, 1922; New York: Scribner, 1923. *''The Poet's Testament: Poems and Two Plays'' (edited by John Hall Wheelock & Daniel Cory). New York: Scribner, 1953. *''Poems of George Santayana'' (selected by Robert Hutchinson). New York: Dover, 1970. *''The Complete Poems of George Santayana: A critical edition'' (edited by William G. Holzberger). Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1979. Play *''Lucifer: A theological tragedy'' (verse drama). New York: H.S. Stone, 1899 ** revised as Lucifer; or, The Heavenly Truce: A theological tragedy. Cambridge, MA: Dunster House, 1924. Novel *''The Last Puritan: A memoir in the form of a novel''. London: Constable, 1935; New York: Scribner, 1936. Non-fiction *''The Sense of Beauty: Being the outlines of aesthetic theory. New York: Scribner, 1896. *Interpretations of Poetry and Religion. New York: Scribner, 1900. *The Life of Reason; or, The Phases of Human progress. New York: Scribner **published in 5 volumes as ''Introduction and Reason in Common Sense, 1905; Reason in Society, 1905; Reason in Religion, 1905; Reason in Art, 1905; Reason in Science, 1906. *''Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1910. *Winds of Doctrine: Studies in contemporary opinion. New York: Scribners, 1913. *Egotism in German Philosophy. New York: Scribner, 1915 **also published as ''The German Mind: A philosophical diagnosis. New York: Crowell, 1968. *''Character and Opinion in the United States: With reminiscences of William James and Josiah Royce and academic life in America. New York: Scribner, 1920. *Soliloquies in England, and Later soliloquies. New York: Scribner, 1922. *Scepticism and Animal Faith: Introduction to a system of philosophy. New York: Scribner, 1923. *The Unknowable: The Herbert Spencer lecture delivered at Oxford, 24 October 1923. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923.The Unknowable: The Herbert Spencer lecture delivered at Oxford, 24 October 1923 (1923), Internet Archive. Web, Feb. 3, 2015. *Dialogues in Limbo. London: Constable, 1925; New York: Scribner, 1926 ** enlarged edition, New York: Scribner, 1948. *''Platonism and the Spiritual Life. New York: Scribner, 1927. *''Realms of Being''. New York: Scribner ** published in 4 volumes as The Realm of Essence, 1927; The Realm of Matter, 1930; The Realm of Truth, 1938; The Realm of Spirit, 1940. *''The Genteel Tradition at Bay''. New York: Scribner, 1931. *''Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy: Five essays. New York: Scribner, 1933. (audio) *''Obiter Scripta: Lectures, essays, and reviews (edited by Justus Buchler & Benjamin Schwartz). New York: Scribner, 1936. *''Persons and Places''. New York: Scribner ** published in 3 volumes as: The Background of My Life, 1944; The Middle Span, 1945; My Host the World, 1953. *''The Idea of Christ in the Gospels; or, God in man: A critical essay''. New York: Scribner, 1946. *''Dominations and Powers: Reflections on liberty, society, and vovernment''. New York: Scribner, 1951. *''The Idler and His Works, and other essays'' (edited by Cory). New York: Braziller, 1957. *''George Santayana's America: Essays on literature and culture'' (edited by James Ballowe). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1967. *''The Genteel Tradition: Nine essays'' (edited by Douglas C. Wilson). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967. *''Santayana on America: Essays, notes, and letters on American life, literature, and philosophy'' (edited by Richard C. Lyon). New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. *''Physical Order and Moral Liberty: Previously unpublished essays'' (edited by John and Shirley Lachs), Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1969. *''Lotze's System of Philosophy'' (edited by Paul Grimley Kuntz), Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1971. Collected editions *''Editions and Collections (15 volumes). New York: Scribner (Triton Edition), 1936-1940. *''Works, Volume I: Persons and places: Fragments of autobiography (edited by William G. Holzberger & Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.George Santayana 1863-1962, Poetry Foundation, Web, Nov. 25, 2012. Essays by George Santayana *The elements of poetry See also * List of U.S. poets References *W. Arnett, 1955. Santayana and the Sense of Beauty, Bloomington, Indiana University Press. *H.T. Kirby-Smith, 1997. A Philosophical Novelist: George Santayana and the Last Puritan. Southern Illinois University Press. *Jeffers, Thomas L., 2005. Apprenticeships: The Bildungsroman from Goethe to Santayana. New York: Palgrave: 159-84. *McCormick, John. George Santayana: A Biography. Alfred A. Knopf, 1987. *Singer, Irving, 2000. George Santayana, Literary Philosopher. Yale University Press. Notes External links ;Poems *"O World, thou choosest not" *"O Martyred Spirit" *George Santayana poem ("There may be chaos still around the world") at the Academy of American Poets *Santayana, George (1863-1952) (4 poems) at Representative Poetry Online *George Santayana 1863-1952 at the Poetry Foundation *George Santayana at PoemHunter (22 poems) ;Prose *"The Elements of Poetry" in Modern Essays ;Books *The Santayana Edition * *Works by or about George Santayana at Archive.org *George Santayana at Amazon.com ;About *George Santayana in the Encyclopædia Britannica *George Santayana at NNDB *George Santayana (1863-1952) at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy * ;Etc. *[http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~kerrlaws/Santayana/Bulletin/seville.html Overheard in Seville]: Bulletin of the Santayana Society Category:1863 births Category:1952 deaths Category:19th-century philosophers Category:20th-century philosophers Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Category:American agnostics Category:American essayists Category:American memoirists Category:American novelists Category:American people of Filipino descent Category:American people of Spanish descent Category:American philosophers Category:American poets Category:Aphorists Category:Cancer deaths in Italy Category:Deaths from stomach cancer Category:Harvard Lampoon people Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:Materialists Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:People from Madrid Category:People from Rome (city) Category:Philosophers of art Category:Philosophy of sexuality Category:Pragmatists Category:Spanish agnostics Category:Spanish essayists Category:Spanish emigrants to the United States Category:Spanish memoirists Category:Spanish novelists Category:Spanish people of Filipino descent Category:Spanish philosophers Category:Spanish poets Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Spanish-language poets Category:Poets